China Merchants Bank (CMB), the country's largest credit card issuer, estimated on Friday that its first-quarter net profit had risen more than 140 percent year-on-year.

CMB's year-earlier net profit was 2.46 billion yuan (351 million US dollars), or 0.17 yuan per share.

The bank, China's most profitable lender, said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the surge in profit came from rising assets, higher non-interest income, a wider interest rate margin and a lower corporate income tax rate.

CMB's full-year 2007 net profit was 15.24 billion yuan, up 124.4 percent year-on-year, the fastest growth among all domestic listed lenders.

Its total assets were up 40.30 percent to 1.31 trillion yuan as of the end of 2007. Outstanding loans rose 19 percent to 673.17 billion yuan and outstanding deposits grew 21.94 percent to 943.53 billion yuan.

The average interest rate margin increased by 27 basis points to 2.96 percent, with the lending rate up 43 basis points and the deposit rate up 16 basis points.

The capital-adequacy ratio fell to 10.67 percent in 2007 from 11.39 percent a year earlier and the non-performing loans ratio fell to 1.54 percent from 2.12 percent.

CMB's shares rose 2.02 percent to 32.78 yuan on Friday in Shanghai.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2008)